Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is an inherited disease that causes progressive instability of gait or ataxia. This disease is caused by an expansion of a stretch of glutamines in the disease causing protein, ataxin-1. Several converging lines of evidence suggest that expanded ataxin-1 is toxic to neurons by causing increased histone acetylation, recruiting co-repressors and ultimately downregulating the transcription of a subset of genes involved in maintaining Purkinje cell structure and function. In our studies on ataxin-1, we have identified its interacting protein LANP as an excellent candidate mediator of neurodegeneration. This protein is a potent inhibitor of histone acetylation and transcription. In testing for a role of LANP in SCA1 pathogenesis, we have found that decreasing LANP levels in mice increases the levels of histone acetylation, an effect opposite to that induced by mutant ataxin-1. Moreover, we have also discovered that depleting LANP in neuronal cell-lines promotes neurite outgrowth, indeed, ameliorating the poor neurite outgrowth mediated by mutant ataxin-1. These results inspire the hypothesis that LANP plays a key role in SCA1 pathogenesis by serving as a mediator of toxicity in SCA1. Specifically, we postulate that LANP is recruited by ataxin-1 to cause persistent hypoacetylation at promoters of genes resulting in transcriptional aberrations and neuronal dysfunction. We would therefore predict that reducing LANP levels would reverse histone hypoacetylation seen in SCA1 and improve the phenotype. This exploratory/developmental grant proposes to test this intriguing hypothesis by depleting LANP in SCA1 mice and testing whether the SCA1 phenotype can be ameliorated as suggested by our in vitro work. This study would thus provide insights into a novel epigenetic pathogenic mechanism in SCA1. In addition, this study could lead to new therapies based on interfering with LANP function. This would represent an important breakthrough for patients with this otherwise incurable disease. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1 (SCA1) is an adult onset neurodegenerative disease caused by degeneration of the cerebellum and the brainstem. At a cellular level, it is characterized by alterations in gene expression in Purkinje cells and brainstem neurons brought about by mutant ataxin-1, the protein defective in this genetic disease. Our studies are aimed at attempting to reverse toxicity by inhibiting the functions of the ataxin-1 interacting protein LANP, a likely mediator of transcriptional derangements in this disease.